Angelina Jolie isn't impressed with the U.S. response to the refugee crisis
LONDON -- United Nations refugee agency's special envoy Angelina Jolie-Pitt has made a compelling speech warning nations against a "fear of migration," which she says is causing the refugee system to break down.
Speaking at the BBC’s Radio Theatre at Broadcasting House in London, Jolie-Pitt said this was a "once-in-a-generation moment when nations have to pull together".
"Over 60 million people are displaced today, more than any time in the last 70 years. That is one in every 122 people," she said at the beginning of her keynote speech.
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"This tells us something deeply worrying about the peace and security of our world. It says that for all its other advances, this type of human insecurity is growing faster than our ability to prevent or reverse it."
The current refugee system to protect and return is breaking down, Jolie-Pitt said, because the "number of conflicts and scale of displacement have grown so large." She added that UN appeals were drastically under-funded.
"With this then the state of today's world, is it any surprise that some of these desperate people, who are running out of all options and who see no hope of returning home, would make a push for Europe as a last resort, even at the risk of death?"
"Strength lies in being unafraid."
She also warned against isolationism saying, "if your neighbour's house is on fire you are not safe if you lock your doors. Strength lies in being unafraid."
During the Q&A that followed, Jolie-Pitt said she'd been "very disheartened" by the U.S. response to the refugee crisis.
Asked whether she was referring to Donald Trump's comments about building a wall on the border with Mexico or his proposed ban on Muslims entering the US, Jolie-Pitt just shook her head and said:
"America is built on people from around the world coming together for freedoms, especially freedom of religion. It’s hard to hear that this is coming from somebody who’s pressing to be an american president," she said.
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